Humans have applied scents and fragrances to their skin since antiquity and have used fragrances and scents to enhance the aesthetic quality of their environment inter alia clothing and living space. Originally these aesthetically pleasing materials were commonly isolated in raw form as resins, gums or essential oils from natural sources, inter alia, the bark, roots, leaves and fruit of indigenous plants. These resins, gums, and oils were directly applied to the body or diluted with water or other solvent, including in some cases, wine. With the advent of modem chemistry, individual components responsible for the odor properties of these resins, gums and oils were isolated and subsequently characterized. Aside from common "perfiune vehicles" inter alia, fine perfumes, colognes, eau de toilettes, after-shave lotions, and a wide variety of personal care or personal hygiene items, fragrances and scents are also delivered to clothing during the laundering process.
It is well known that mixtures of perfume or fragrance raw materials when deposited on a surface lose intensity and may change character with time, mainly due to factors such as differential evaporation and surface penetration. Many attempts have been made to minimize these drawbacks, but so far without notable success. Particularly, efforts have been made to prolong the diffusion, as well as to improve other characteristics of fragrance materials, by e.g. increasing the fragrance raw material concentration or by using additives such as silicones, glycerol, polyethylene glycols and so on. Such additions, however, have never been adequate to increase the longevity of the fragrance odor.
Accordingly, there remains a need in the art for a fragrance delivery system which can be formulated into any type of product used to deliver an aesthetically pleasing fragrance inter alia personal care and personal hygiene products, and laundry detergent compositions including rinse and dryer-added adjuncts. In addition, the delivered fragrance must have a sustained perception, therefore, the fragrance must be slowly released.